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| Egg-fried Rice |
| 07.31.03 (6:31 pm) [edit] |
Imagine if National Security Advisor Sandy Berger, who had served under President Clinton, had made the rounds of all the TV talk shows, prior to waging an optional war (since there was no danger of attacks when UN Inspectors were in Iraq), and frightened us witless with images of "mushroom clouds", nuclear attacks, and, biological & chemical attacks about to be launched by a horrible monster within 45 minutes. Imagine further, if in the aftermath of such terrifying warnings, the war was launched resulting in the deaths of 293 US & British Military men and women (over 260 American), and an estimated 6600-7800 Iraqi civilian deaths.
Imagine even further, that all the hyped-up "intelligence" warning us of "imminent attacks" with all these "weapons of mass destruction" that were deployable and ready to strike, turned out to be fabrications, falsehoods and lies. Finally, extend your imagination, to fast-forward to the present time, when these same people were telling you that now they hope to find evidence not of those very WMDs able to destroy you & your loved ones "imminently"-- but perhaps they will find evidence of "programmes" to develop such WMDs.
Indeed, if Al Gore (instead of Dick Cheney) and Sandy Berger (instead of Condi Rice) and William Cohen (instead of Don Rumsfeld) had perpetrated such a fraud upon the American People and the World-- they would have been "fried alive" already. Berger would have been asked to resign. Instead, all the neo-cons could "cook-up" on Clinton was a sexual liaison, (that didn't result in thousands of deaths of human beings), because he didn't like their "Pre-emptive Doctrine". Anyone with a "brain" would ridicule Rummy & Wolfy's "Pre-emptive Doctrine" as looney-- just as insane as the crack-pot Poindexter's ghoulish Gambling Casino on Death scheme, which Congress rightly cancelled.
In fact, now that Poindexter has "resigned", he should probably seek counseling at the nearest psychiatric unit (he's lucky: he's got health insurance unlike over 45 Million Americans). The Bush Gang, especially: Bush himself, Cheney, Rice, Rumsfeld & Wolfowitz who see war as a "game" should join him there.
Condi Rice's reputation amongst knowledgable professionals who value the truth is discredited. Who could possibly believe her now, except for the neo-con fascists who believe that the "ends justify the means"? She has lied to the American people, and, if she did not read the memorandum sent to her by the CIA, warning her of falsehoods and mis-statements that she approved in the President's State of the Union speech, then she is also incompetent. Her career in government is "wrecked", because she misplaced her loyalty in corrupt Emperors Bush and Cheney, instead of comprehending that her duty and loyalty is supposed to be to the United States of America. Her priorities are screwed-up and she is unfit to hold a public office.
Condi Rice has "egg on her face", and has "fried" her own reputation and credibility. Bush's insistence that she remains in office, shouts loudly to his own lack of integrity and his utter contempt for the American People and the Rule of Law. Bush's refusal to dismiss those who "mis-led" him (if indeed he was mis-led-- perhaps he lied as he & Cheney seemed to have lusted for the war in Iraq prior to 9/11), also demonstrates a callousness and brutish disregard for those US Military men & women who gave their lives on the basis of trusting that they were protecting the U.S.A. against danger. Our brave men and women were not killed, maimed and injured in defense of this country, and if Bush & Cheney had any honour, they would insist upon their appointees who mis-led the country stepping down.
Condi Rice stated yesterday on PBS's Newshour with Jim Lehrer: "The president of the United States has every right to believe that what he is saying in his speeches is of the highest confidence of his staff. A rigorous clearance process exists to ensure that, she said, but in this one case, the process did not work." Dear oh dear, but Rice is responsible for vetting National Security information and ensuring that the process does indeed work.
Our system of government will continue to deteriorate, and is changing for the worse, before our very eyes, on the basis, that for whatever reason, powerful individuals are above scrutiny and above the rule of law.
"We the People" must demand a full inquiry into the inter-workings of the National Security Advisor's Agency now. Moreover, it is particularly vital to investigate Condi Rice, since we've been warned that (a) more terrorist attacks are forthcoming, (b) al Qaeda has re-established new training programmes and there are thousands of their operatives in the USA, and, (c) the Bush administration has cut funding to protect us here at home, because they are bankrupting us in an insane war in Iraq, which they have badly bungled.
The American People cannot have confidence that Condi Rice is able to administer the National Security Agency properly.
The Bush Gang announced prior to launching their illegal & immoral incursion into Iraq that the U.S. Taxpayer would incur a cost of approximately $1 Billion/Month-- During the so-called "war", we were told the costs escalated to a "back-breaking" $2 Billion/Month-- Now that we are involved in a "post-war" (sic) guerilla quagmire, our costs are running at an insane $4 Billion/Month:-- Anyone else, other than Bush's Corrupt Cabal would have been fired on the spot!
In the Corporate World (that the neo-CEO Bush & neo-COO Cheney bizarrely bragged they were modelling their administration after), this would be grounds for dismissal and potential charges of malfeasance (except for the Enron model in which Bush's buddy Kenny-boy Lay "takes the money & runs"). Hmmmm ... one now can surmise that the USA is in economic turmoil, perhaps due to the Bush/Cheney/Kenny-boy (Enron) Lay philosophy of "management".
Can we afford to allow our country to be put at risk, on the basis of the corruption and incompetence shown to-date by Rice, Rumsfeld & Wolfowitz? Ask the families of the victims of 9/11 and the Americans who died in Iraq to-date.
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| Bush's Implausible Deniability of Real Responsibility |
| 07.31.03 (9:14 am) [edit] |
One could be forgiven for wondering if Bush comprehends the meaning of the words he utters. He seems oblivious to the very irony, inconsistency, and, deceptions of his own rhetoric. The White House Words don't "square-up" with their Actions taken.
While the U.S.A. is known to be an "irony-free" zone, there was a time, even in recent history (e.g. Watergate & Lewinsky-gate), when our Leader's honesty was deemed important. Furthermore, our "freedom" rests on the very sacred notion (that they even managed to figure out as early as 1215 & codified in the Magna Carta): No Man is Above the Law, even a King, and under our own system: even a President, Vice-President, National Security Advisor, Secretary of Defense, and Assistant Secretary of Defense, for example. Do we as a people no longer care about the rule of law? If we do, where is the outrage?
Today, the neo-con "attack-dogs" are in damage-control mode, desperately gambling on American's credulity to believe that Bush & Cheney didn't know about Poindexter's unsavoury Gambling Casino on Death, his U.S. Lottery Jackpot of Death. Bush & Cheney seem to know very, very little (if one is gullable enough to believe Karl Rove's hype), about what is happening under their noses. Admittedly, the smell isn't very pleasant-- but Bush & Cheney wanted the job ... and appointed these people who have lied to us, and dreamt-up their sick, corrupt programmes.
Bush's implausible deniability of real responsibility for taking any action against those who are clearly incompetent, liars, dangerous, or downright crack-pots, like Poindexter, demonstrates that indeed, he refuses to be held accountable and considers himself above the rule of law. Bush & Cheney actions show their lack of conscience and refusal to accept any Real Responsibility for the appallingly wrong-headed direction they are taking this country.
Yesterday, Bush glibly brushed off reporter's questions with "I take personal responsibility for everything I say, of course, absolutely. I also take responsibility for making decisions on war and peace."-- but, in truth of fact: he doesn't. It's not good enough to spout words that have no meaning ... that have no consequences. A responsible leader takes the requisite actions consistent with his/her pronouncements. Bush has not done so to-date, and is stubbornly refusing to do so now, in the face of blatantly wanton incompetence and corruption displayed by his appointees.
Joseph E. Stiglitz, an economics professor at Columbia University, was chairman of the Council of Economic Advisors under President Clinton. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in economics in 2001. Dr. Stigliz, commented today in the Los Angeles Times, in an article entitled "Terrorism: There's No Futures in It" on : http://www.latimes.com/news/o...,1,4162448.story?coll=la-news-commen t-opinions : "Administration has taken market fundamentalism to an absurd low."
"In its own peculiar way, the administration has once again recognized the limitations of markets — as it did with the airline bailouts, steel tariffs and agriculture subsidies. But once again, the lack of intellectual foundation or a firm grasp of economic principles — or the pursuit of other agendas — has led to a proposal that almost seems a mockery of itself."
The Bush administration's economic agenda has not only led to proposals that almost seem a mockery of themselves, but their insane foreign policy of "Pre-emptive Doctrine" (propaganda phrase meaning: hitlerian aggression, incursion, invasion) makes a mockery of civilized laws and international co-operation. Their lack of respect for the rule of law, makes a mockery of their rhetorical pronouncements about safeguarding this country and their claims on patriotism. What is they say about the last refuge of scoundrels?
"We the People" must recognize that it is our responsibility to take action. We've been deceived with respect to What the President Knew and When He Knew it regarding 9/11 and Iraq. Moreover, bizarre nightmare schemes are being brewed-up by the ghouls in the "bowels" of the Pentagon, that are an anathema to our democratic system of government.
Let's take our own responsibility as citizens seriously, and write to our Congressmen and women, demanding that action to be taken ... Unlike the Bush/Cheney Gang, let's not evade our obligation to this country, founded upon the Rule of Law, for which it stands, by taking positive and responsible action today.
Refer to another excellent editorial published today in the Los Angeles Times:
"Pointy Heads, Deadly Game"
"Investors can be so frighteningly on the money in predicting things like elections that, in theory, setting up a commodity-style market in which participants helped generals anticipate terrorist attacks, coups and turmoil might have harnessed the force of greed for the U.S. good. But a Bush administration plan to do so, one that officials pledged Tuesday to "terminate," was unbelievably stupid.
Its unsavory doings could have included putting the government in the business of taking bets on whether the king of Jordan would be assassinated. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-New York) characterized it as "a futures market in death."
The plan was conceived largely by social scientists at Caltech under the supervision of John M. Poindexter, the national security advisor to the elder President Bush and the Reagan administration advisor who engineered the 1980s guns-for-hostages trade known as Iran-Contra. Last year, he developed another hare-brained program, dubbed Total Information Awareness. Aimed at countering terrorism by tapping computer databases for personal information on U.S. citizens, the program's funding was whacked after lawmakers denounced it for trampling civil liberties.
Poindexter's dicey record is a big reason why legislators should not take the word of Deputy Defense Secretary Paul D. Wolfowitz about the demise of this insane market. Displaying Total Information Unawareness on Tuesday, Wolfowitz claimed he learned about the ploy only that day, from the media. "I share your shock at this kind of program," he assured senators. "We'll find out about it, but it is being terminated."
One question: Is the administration halting just this scheme or also its lesser-known predecessors? Last Dec. 19, the Pentagon published a notice calling on social scientists to develop market-like mechanisms to predict national security threats — this as a continuation of its ongoing Electronic Market-Based Decision Support program.
By itself, this research is morally neutral. It relies on the work of Thomas Bayes, the 18th century English mathematician who believed that social scientists could never predict the future if all they did was debate chalkboard equations in academe; they also must find ways to factor in "street" voices, like those of the marketplace.
Poindexter's latest project, however, horribly overreached. It would not only have predicted markets but also would have influenced them in repugnant ways, letting terrorists profit from their mayhem.
This project showed above all that, in their obsession with listening to vox populi, social scientists and the policy wonks who funded them grew deaf to ethics and moral responsibility. Soul-searching is in order in the ivy-covered towers. And it's past time for Poindexter to go."
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| U.S. Lottery Jackpot of Death |
| 07.30.03 (3:54 pm) [edit] |
"Shock and Awe" isn't a strategy used by the Bush Gang on foreign enemies (Iraqis were not "shocked", nor were they "awed"-- they were massacred, sorrowed and angered). But instead, it's the bizarre Plan-of-Attack that Bush, Cheney, Rice, Rumsfeld & Wolfowitz have launched to terrorize the citizens of the U.S.A.
The story of a lottery, a betting game, a pool for those who want to gamble on terrorist attacks, assassinations, and deaths related to the Middle-East-- was in reality a Defense Department scheme, under the Pentagon's ghoulish goon: Poindexter. This guy makes Dr. Strangelove look like Mother Teresa, by comparison.
This isn't the first "Big Brother" fascist scheme launched by Poindexter: remember, he is the "brains" behind the Total Information Awareness programme to spy on every aspect of your life, lest you "say the wrong thing" according to Bush, and need to be categorized as an "enemy combattant" or "terrorist". There is a real danger of "Enemies Lists" compiled by the Government comprising those who don't support Bush/Cheney policies.
The fact that Bush didn't immediately demand Poindexter's resignation for his blood-thirsty U.S. Lottery Jackpot of Death, is another indication that Bush is either stupid, corrupt, or most probably (if one was to wager a bet): both. It's a sign that the Bush Gang, are not only war-mongers, but are also, so "out-of-touch" with reality, that they are obscenely dangerous.
Those neo-con court jesters who claim that Bush & Cheney didn't know about this blood-thirsty, bizarre betting scheme, condemned by Republican and Democratic Congressmen/women alike, must account for the incompetence and/or problems associated with an administration that purports (come on, folks) to claim not to know anything about the falsehoods, lies, deceit, and, corrupt programmes carried out in the "bowels" of their own organisation.
"We the People" should demand an open-door investigation into the crimes committed by the Bush administration before they run us "off a cliff", and we leave a legacy to future generations to apologize for, and having to endlessly explain our government's hitlerian agenda & Crimes against Humanity, while we watched with "eyes-wide-open", and collaborated.
That Wolfowitz glibly mumbled to Congress: "It sounds like maybe they got too imaginative in this area." also demonstrates that he should be asked to resign, along with Rumsfeld and Poindexter.
Ari Fleischer warned us to "watch what you say" ... it's clear that unless he's stopped, Poindexter will execute untold punishments upon those who ignore Bush's threat.
An excellent editorial published today in the New York Times, is as follows:
"Poindexter's Follies"
"The time has obviously come to send John Poindexter packing and to shut down the wacky espionage operation he runs at the Pentagon. The latest idea hatched by Mr. Poindexter's shop — an online futures trading market where speculators could bet on the probabilities of terrorist attacks, assassinations and coups — was canceled yesterday by embarrassed Pentagon officials. The next logical step is to fire Mr. Poindexter.
In testimony before Congress yesterday, Paul Wolfowitz, the deputy secretary of defense, disowned the futures project. The insensitivity of the idea boggles the mind. Quite apart from the tone-deafness of equating terrorist attacks with, say, corn futures, the plan would allow speculators — even terrorists — to profit from anonymous bets on future attacks. The project's theoretical underpinnings are equally absurd. Markets do not always operate perfectly in the larger world of stocks and bonds. The idea that they can reliably forecast the behavior of isolated terrorists is ridiculous.
The "Policy Analysis Market" would actually have opened for business on Oct. 1 had Senators Ron Wyden and Byron Dorgan not blown the whistle. Despite Mr. Wolfowitz's pledge to kill it, however, the problem of Mr. Poindexter remains. He is a man of dubious background and dubious ideas. A retired rear admiral, he served as Ronald Reagan's national security adviser and helped devise the plan to sell arms to Iran and illegally divert the proceeds to the rebels in Nicaragua. He was sentenced to six months in jail for lying to Congress, a conviction overturned on appeal. He resurfaced under the Bush administration at the Pentagon. His first big brainstorm post-9/11 was a program known as Total Information Awareness, designed to identify potential terrorists by compiling a detailed electronic dossier on millions of Americans.
Congress agreed earlier this year to subject that program to strict oversight and prohibit it from being used against Americans. In light of the revelations about the latest Poindexter scheme, Congress obviously did not go far enough. It should close his operation for good. The Senate recently agreed to do just that, adding an amendment to a Defense Department appropriations bill that would terminate funds for the program. The House must now follow suit."
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| I Do Not Want To Be A Collaborator |
| 07.29.03 (8:47 am) [edit] |
The Bush administration's spin factory is working over-time now, to overcome the scandals of their lying and cover-up on 9/11 and the illegal and immoral incursion into Iraq.
The Bush Gang's contempt for the rule of law, and for the laws of this country warrants an investigation and the impeachment of Bush & Cheney, and the resignations of Rice, Rumsfeld and Wolfwitz.
Today, the White House announces it will not release the 28 pages from the 9/11 investigative report, which we have the right to know:-- Both Republican and Democratic Congressmen who read the report, have indeed, called for the White House to release it, and stated that its publication would not threaten our national security. It would only threaten to expose the outright falsehoods by Bush, Cheney, Rice, Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz.
The "classified" information would give us insight into those foreign interests who funded the Saudi Arabian and Egyptian terrrorists responsible for 9/11 (No Iraqis were involved, although the Bush Gang dishonestly implied they were to fuel the fury for their illegal & immoral Iraqi War). Moreover, the links between the Bush Family & the Dictatorial Saudi Royal Family (no "freedom" for Saudi people under their Monarchial Regime) are long-standing.
Daddy Bush 41 and Baby Bush 43, are alleged to have financial interests in the Carlyle Group, supposedly used to channel money from their buddies, the Saudi Royal Family, who have terrorized their own people (ala Saddam Hussein). The torture and deaths of Saudis has been common knowledge for years, and there are reports of campaign contributions that helped them finance Bush Family campaigns for the positions of Governor of Texas & Presidencies of the USA. The Saudi Royal Family has allegedly funded millions to support the Bush Family for years and have received many rewards from the Good Ole' American Taxpayer from the Bush Gangs for doing so.
The Bush Gang probably do not want their ties to the Saudi Royal Family, with respect to the knowledge both groups had prior to the attack on 9/11, to be made public. Nor, do they want their lies and deceit surrounding Iraq to be made public. Hence, the "dog-and-pony" shows by Wolfowitz & Bremer, in which a false picture of the situation in Iraq was portrayed. It is not rosy in Iraq, but instead, it is bleak for Iraqis, and bleak for our US Military men and women.
Yesterday, Professor Isam al-Khafaji, a former member of the Iraqi reconstruction council, explains his decision to resign in a letter sent to Wolfowitz, and published in the UK Guardian on-line. Please read entire text of his letter on : http://www.guardian.co.uk/com...,3604,1007045,00.html
There is a similar trend of cover-up and deception by the Bush/Cheney gang, in the Iraq guerilla quagmire, as with the 9/11 cover-up. Wolfowitz and Bremer made the rounds of the talk shows this last weekend, and spinned a web of lies, that is clearly disputed by reports from the ground.
The situation in Iraq is far from rosy, and indeed, is chaotic. Bush & Cheney made certain to protect oil fields, leaving the people in a lawless state without protection, water, electricity, food, health care and other necessities. This does not constitute "freedom". Indeed, there can be no "freedom" with terror and lawlessness.
Prof. Isam al-Khafaji is a professor of political economy at the University of Amsterdam and author of the forthcoming Tormented Births: Passages to Modernity in Europe and the Middle East. He was a member of the Democratic Principles Working Group convened by the US state department to discuss the future of Iraqi governance. A few excerpts from his resignation letter are as follows:
"My understanding of this council, which first reported to retired general Jay Garner, and is now under civil administrator Paul Bremer, was that we would work with Iraq's ministries, not as ministers, but in the background as advisers. Its goal was to restore Iraq's badly damaged infrastructure - the electricity, the hospitals, the water supplies and the transportation routes - at least to its pre-war state so that the country could be turned over to a transitional government. "
"There was euphoria when Baghdad first fell, but the Americans acted with arrogance. While many Iraqis are relieved to see Saddam out, and accept the fact that the US is the only power than can secure some semblance of order, they now see it acting as an occupier."
"Sadly, the vision for a transitional government and democratic elections put forward by Wolfowitz seems to have been forgotten in the everyday pressures of postwar Iraq. Wolfowitz is just one player and there are many others on the ground in Iraq who do not share his vision. Even the soldiers here bluntly say they take their orders from their general, not from Bremer."
"Bitter disputes between the defence department and the state department continue to affect the situation. Even though Bremer has the formal authority within Iraq, it seems like each and every decision must go back to Washington, and we are the victims of indecision."
"Iraq is now in almost total chaos. No one knows what is going on. We're not talking here about trying to achieve an ideal political system. People cannot understand why a superpower that can amass all that military might can't get the electricity back on. Iraqis are now contrasting Saddam's ability to bring back power after the war in 1991 to the apparent inability of the US to do so now. There are all kinds of conspiracy theories."
Also refer to Robert Fisk's articles published on ZNet and the Independent UK websites. Mr. Fisk described the horrific massacre of innocent Iraqis in a raid intended to capture Saddam Hussein, but instead resulted in a slaughter. The anger in Iraq in the aftermath of this callous attack, has been widely reported in the main-stream press.
The brave men and women in the US Military serving in Iraq, and their families should be very, very worried. Eventually, the Iraqi will people learn that the Bush administration has sold off their country's assets (oil), and awarded contracts to Bush's cronies: Big Oil, Halliburton, Bechtel, and others, who will exploit Iraq to enjoy the fat, juicy profits at their expense. Once the Iraqis discover that they have no voice, no say so, no "freedom" to ensure that they are the beneficiaries, rather than Bush's Corporate Robber-barons:-- Then to be an American in Iraq will be extremely dangerous, fatal.
"We the People" must halt the Bush Administration's Crimes against Humanity, benefitting their Corporate Cronies & Paymasters, and neither the American citizens, nor the Iraqi people. We must not become their useful idiots, nor their collaborators.
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| Another Day, Another Dead US Soldier |
| 07.28.03 (2:23 pm) [edit] |
The Death Toll of our American soldiers in Iraq keeps rising every day in this insane botched-up guerilla quagmire, a war of attrition. In the meantime, the loved ones of Bush, Cheney, Rice, Rumsfeld & Wolfowitz are enjoying their summer fests in Old Europe, 1st class, of course, skimming the cream off of Bush's nice fat, juicy tax cuts for the hyper-rich, that have triggered slashed services and local/state tax hikes hitting the lower income, middle-class, and fixed-income retirees hard.
In the Media & Guardian on-line, Rob Kennedy reports:
"A rocket-propelled grenade strikes from out of nowhere, incinerating an American Humvee military transport on a highway near Baghdad. One US soldier killed, three wounded."
"When the explosion is heard, a group of Iraqi civilians nearby gathers at the site of the smoldering aftermath, reports CNN's Harris Whitbeck. When they realise it was an attack on a US military force, they erupt in cheers, and that cheering lasts several minutes."
"Another day in Iraq, another dead US soldier."
"Since US President George Bush declared an end to major conflict in Iraq on May 1, 49 American troops have died in hostile encounters, and hundreds more have been wounded. The total military death toll, including accidents and friendly fire, stands at 163 -- 16 more than the first Gulf War in 1991."
Read entire article on : http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l...
Now the American & British death toll in Iraq is at 289, with the American deaths now surpassing 240. Browse through the names, faces and information about our brave men & women killed on : http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2...
Don't bother to search for anyone related to Bush, Cheney, Rice, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, or the other neo-con war-mongers amongst those fallen Americans. You won't find any "chicken-hawks" making any sacrifices for the good ole' USA.
Over 10 Americans have been killed since the deaths of Udai & Qusai. Bush's lust to find Saddam Hussein in order take the sting out of the increasing US casualties, has also resulted in the deaths of innocent Iraqis.
Kennedy continues: "Many US troops say they are not surprised by increasing attacks or displays of anger among Iraqis, the Washington Post reports. While no official statistics exist, Iraq's civilian death toll since the war began March 20 is an estimated to be between 6 000 and 7 800."
""Wouldn't you be mad if they invaded your country?" James McNeely, a member of the US National Guard, asks a Post reporter."
""I want to go home.""
"Chaos still reigns large in Iraq. Besides the lack of security, problems with water and electricity remain, unemployment is rampant, and as Jonathan Steele of The Guardian newspaper points out, there is the "daily indignity of seeing foreign troops on their streets"."
"With the occupation costing $3,9-billion a month, Iraq being liberated from Saddam's evil grip, and no weapons of mass destruction anywhere in sight, the justification for occupying Iraq is also being questioned more and more back in the US."
"According to a July Washington Post-ABC News poll, 40% of Americans say the war with Iraq was not worth fighting, up from 27% in late April. The same poll found 52% believe US casualties in Iraq have reached an "unacceptable" level."
Hundreds of Americans and thousands of innocent Iraqis, have given their lives based upon a pack of lies, cynically hoisted upon us by the corrupt Bush/Cheney junta. When the Iraqi people discover that their oil has been stolen to enrich Bush's cronies: Big Oil, Halliburton, Bechtel, etc., then god help the poor American soldiers on the ground in Iraq.
"We the People" should express our outrage at this insane blood-letting, lest we be rightly charged by future generations with standing-by and saying nothing, while our Government commits Crimes against Humanity. Express your outrage to your elected representatives on : http://www.congress.org , asking for the trial and impeachment of George Walker Bush & Dick Cheney, and the resignations of Rice, Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz.
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| Bush Gang Blood-letting of Innocent Iraqis |
| 07.28.03 (8:38 am) [edit] |
The blood-thirsty Bush Gang's blood-letting of our US Military soldiers and innocent Iraqis has exceeded the bounds of acceptable rules of engagement in warfare, and, now constitutes Crimes Against Humanity.
Bush & Cheney, Rice & Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz & Bremer, are acting recklessly in their desperation to regain political popularity, lost to those who watch in horror, as over 241 Americans have been killed in Iraq (162 killed in combat), and between 6076 & 7787 Iraqi civilians are dead, on the basis of an illegal and immoral incursion into Iraq. Refer to Iraqi body-count on : http://www.iraqbodycount.net/...
The Bush Gang lied and deceived the American People, while ridiculing, intimidating, coercing and punishing those Nations and American citizens who disagreed with their lust for war, and their fraudulent rationale.
In the aftermath of Bush's bizarre, bombastic May 1st "victory dance", extravagantly staged on the USS Abraham Lincoln, (cynically devised to use in the 2004 Presidential Campaign), he bragged "Mission Accomplished!" with no "murky" qualifiers. It was a pathetic performance by a petty-minded man with no conception of the carnage and misery he has unleashed, and what is worse, no interest in it. Bush & Cheney are now running around the country, holding Campaign Fund-raisers, and getting those Rich Robber-barons who were awarded massive tax cuts to the richest of the rich, to send in their $2000/plate checks as fast as they can write 'em. Yes, Bush & Cheney will attempt to buy the highest office in the land, or stage another rigged banana republican coup d'etat ala 2000.
Meanwhile, they are so desperate to obtain a "win" in Iraq, at all costs, that they have abandoned disciplined & measured reason. Beware of ruthless and desperate men: they'll destroy anyone in their wake to achieve their aims. The pressure brought about by Bush, Cheney, Rice, and the Rumsfeld Gang, upon our US Military, has resulted in a horrific tragedy for Iraqi citizens innocently caught in the cross-fire.
Read Robert Fisk's article entitled "US Troops Turn a Botched Saddam Raid into a Massacre" on : http://www.zmag.org/content/s...
The loss of life of 11 Iraqi citizens yesterday, in a raid to find Saddam Hussein, is another monstrous example, of the consequences associated with a Rogue Regime, run amok: Bush's Rogue Regime. These innocents were massacred, because of the insanely intense pressure upon our US Military to find Saddam in the hopes of rehabilitating the corrupt Bush administration's sullied reputation.
The Bush administration couldn't find Osama bin Laden, the real perpetrator of 9/11, who had nothing to do with Saddam Hussein (who didn't threaten us, and had no ability to harm us, and wasn't involved in 9/11). The entire world sees the Bush Rogue Regime for the terrorists they are, in waging an incursion into a sovereign nation, based upon a phony, fabricated threat of WMDs posing a supposed "imminent threat"-- now seen by all, except for neo-con fascists, as the Big Lie.
Ironically, Bush & Cheney "need" Saddam Hussein. Boy, do they "need" Saddam Hussein. Saddam Hussein might just "save their hides"! Our American soldiers & innocent Iraqis are paying the outlandish price in blood and treasure to save Bush's "hide".
Fisk is on the ground in Iraq, and reports:
"When another car arrived US troops riddled it with more bullets and it burst into flames. It is believed that two people were inside and both were burnt to death. "The Americans didn't try to help the civilians they had shot, not once," a witness said. "They let the car burn and left the bodies where they lay, even the children. It was we who had to take them to the hospitals."
"Yet again, false informers, ill-trained American soldiers who appeared to exercise no fire control and a lack of military planning has created a tragedy among the people the Americans claimed to be 'liberating' from Saddam Hussein only 15 weeks ago. Last night, there were reports from the southern city of Karbala that three men had been shot dead by American troops during a demonstration."
The Bush/Cheney junta's desperation is dangerous. The Bush/Cheney junta's arrogant rhetoric is bombastic and obscene. The Bush/Cheney junta's actions are outrageous and criminal.
The Bush/Cheney junta may re-gain a sort-of fickle "popularity" amongst brutish, neo-con minds who see war as a "game" to "win" at all costs, if they capture Saddam Hussein. (Bush & Rice mistake their love affair with football games, for warfare which they know nothing about.) However, they have squandered any trust and credibility they might have obtained amongst enlightened minds and the Iraqi people. Their obsessive self-interest and greed is despicable, and the consequences of their obsessions are tragic for those destroyed in the wake of their corrupt actions.
"We the People" should hang our head in shame at the outrageous blood-letting of innocent Iraqis, which the Bush administration falsely purports to be "liberating". Instead they have massacred thousands, and raped them economically as the Iraqis have no voice in the take-over of their assets & contracts awarded to benefit Bush's cronies (Big Oil, Halliburton, Bechtel, etc.) instead of benefitting the Iraqi people. The Bush administration's concern about the Iraqi people is as phony as their WMDs fish tale (and as smelly).
Bush & Cheney may find themselves winning a Pyrrhic Victory, with so much blood spilt and so much misery, that it leaves the world angry and soured to the US neo-Rogue Regime. Karl Rove will most likely be squandering millions of additional of taxpayer dollars to produce a new Bush photo-op, since Bush's May 1st "Mission Accomplished" buffoonery is better suited to a "Politically Incorrect" Satirical Farce: It sorely demonstrates that we lack a distinguished and wise world leader.
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| The Wolf Then Said "It's Murky" |
| 07.27.03 (4:40 pm) [edit] |
Once upon a time, the Wolf said "It's a Monster" ... later, no Monster appeared, and, Little Red Citizen said "But No One's There!-- There is No Monster". The Wolf Then Said "It's Murky" ...
The Bush administration is working overtime now, in it's panic-stricken modus operandi to convince us that 2 + 2 = anything but 4! Bush, Cheney, Rice, Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz have told so many lies, so many outright fantasies, costing the lives of our soldiers and innocent Iraqis, that Americans are shell-shocked. While we're in a state of shock, they've come up with their new tactic: "it's mmmuuurrrkkkyyy".
The Wolf Wolfowitz has a new Karl Rove whopper that Bush, Cheney, Rice, Rumsfeld & Wolfowitz desperately hope will persuade a sleeping, not terribly alert American public, to divert our attention away from their economic rape of America, Iraq and other countries. If the American public buy this boloney, then Karl Rove is indeed, the "Boy Genius"!
Americana is corrupted to the point that the people are being persuaded that being raped and ravaged by the Corporate Robber-barons and Bush thugs is tantamount to being Lucky, Lucky, Lucky! This corrupt Bush administration is turning taxpayer money into Multi-Million Dollar Jackpots to bribe Iraqis to turn in Saddam Hussein, having already squandered $30 Million to finger Udai & Qusai-- due to their own inept, bumbling, stumbling, incompetent planning.
Today Wolfy-Wolfowitz made the rounds of the Sunday morning talk-shows, arrogantly pronouncing that intelligence is "murky". Now we're supposed to be brain-washed into thinking that key decisions to enter into War upon Sovereign Nations (in an age of advanced technologies with satellite photography able to distinguish the numbers on a mailbox from thousands of miles in space), are based upon "murky" stuff? Come on, folks!
Americans love lotteries... Americans love to win at all costs... Americans don't like intellectuals preferring instead cowboy, macho-man buffoonery... Americans aren't terribly interested in nuance and truth: but, consider, how scammed, how conned, how bamboozled, we as a people are willing to become. We are being used by the Bush Regime massacring hundreds of our own people, and thousands of innocent Iraqis, for their own greedy interests alone.
The Iraqi people are told to accept the "freedom" of their country's assets (oil) being sold off without their input; contracts given to Bush's buddies Big Oil, Halliburton, Bechtel, etc. without their review, assessment & say so; and, told that the lawlessness, chaos and misery of the American Occupation is "normal" 'cause, according to Rumsfeld: "stuff happens". Rummy Rumsfeld, Incompetent Rice, & Arrogant Wolfowitz (henchmen of neo-CEO Bush & neo-COO Cheney), didn't sound "murky", when spitting their dishonest rhetoric, during the pre-war sales campaign orchestrated to whip us up into a frenzy.
Newt Gingrich, the neo-con "attack dog" who prostitutes for Bush & Cheney Family Inc., neo-con court jesters like Limbaugh, Savage, Coulter, Krauthammer, and other mediocrities desperate for funding by the neo-fascist AEI, have said: "Aren't you happy that the rapists like Udai and Qusai are gone?" ... Hmmmm, lots of lower-income, middle-class, fixed-income retireers, will be glad for a day when all the rapists & terrorists are gone, both: corporeal (e.g. Saddam Hussein, Mugabe, Kim Jong Il, Saudi Royal Family, etc.), and, civic (e.g. the Bush/Cheney/Rice/Rumsfeld /Wolfowitz goons, Blair, etc.). What Saddam Hussein & Sons did to their citizen's bodies, the Bush/Cheney junta are doing to our economy and environment.
"Murky"? There wasn't anything "murky" in the pronouncements of the Bush Spin Factory and Special Effects Labs, prior to their illegal & immoral incursion into Iraq. The NEW neo-con propaganda: "Murky"? ... Tell the American People , the "murky" nature of the following:
LIE #1: "The evidence indicates that Iraq is reconstituting its nuclear weapons program ... Iraq has attempted to purchase high-strength aluminum tubes and other equipment need for gas centrifuges, which are used to enrich uranium for nuclear weapons." – President Bush, Oct. 7, 2002, in Cincinnati.
Murky? Nope, nothing murky-- this is an outright lie and has proved bogus.
LIE #2: "The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa." – President Bush, Jan.28, 2003, in the State of the Union address.
Murky? Nope, nothing murky-- no nuance, no qualification-- simply an outright lie. NSA Rice is supposed to vet the President's statements, and, received a memo from the CIA warning that this was a false & phony fabrication. Rice has been exposed as a liar, incompetent or both.
LIE #3: "We believe [Saddam] has, in fact, reconstituted nuclear weapons." – Vice President Cheney on March 16, 2003 on "Meet the Press."
Murky? Nope, nothing murky-- Rumseld said that Cheney "misspoke" or was "mistaken" ... but did Cheney issue a retraction? You guess ...
LIE #4: "We have also discovered through intelligence that Iraq has a growing fleet of manned and unmanned aerial vehicles that could be used to disperse chemical or biological weapons across broad areas. We are concerned that Iraq is exploring ways of using these UAVs [unmanned aerial vehicles] for missions targeting the United States." – President Bush, Oct. 7.
Murky? Nope, nothing murky-- the aerial vehicle was a plywood model airplane patched together with duct tape that couldn't fly more than a few feet.
LIE #5: "We have seen intelligence over many months that they have chemical and biological weapons, and that they have dispersed them and that they're weaponized and that, in one case at least, the command and control arrangements have been established." – President Bush, Feb. 8, 2003, in a national radio address.
Murky? Nope, nothing murky-- and, none have been found. The Iraqi weapons weren't used to attack us or attack others.
LIE #6: "We know where [Iraq's WMD] are. They're in the area around Tikrit and Baghdad and east, west, south, and north somewhat." – Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, March 30, 2003, in statements to the press.
Murky? Nope, nothing murky:-- Where are they, Mr. Rumsfeld?
A few examples, amongst many, many statements by the Bush gang, with no nuance, no qualifications, no "murkiness" ... but instead, very, very definitive statements which proved bogus.
The unpleasant reality is that Bush & Cheney are caught with their proverbial "pants down"-- and it ain't a pretty sight. Moreover, they are desperate to avoid pressure by America to involve the experienced UN in the current guerilla quagmire, because the Iraqi people might "wise-up" and demand their right to exploit their own resources for their own benefit. This wouldn't generate obscene profits for the Bush/Cheney Corporate Robber-barons: Big Oil, Halliburton, Bechtel, etc. who have obtained exploitative contracts that would do Udai & Qusai proud.
Why should Americans earning lower-incomes, the middle-class, and fixed-income retirees, bear the back-breaking and heart-wrenching burden of this neo-mafioso Bush Regime's insane wars and corrupt re-distribution of wealth to the Richest of the Rich? Why should Bush's Regime be let "off the hook" having spilt our boys & girls Blood & spent us into a Historically Record-level Deficit in order to enrich their cronies?
"We the People" have been conned, scammed, bamboozled, and raped (in Blood & Treasure) by the Bush administration. The only "murkiness" is the fairy tale story we're being told by the Bush neo-fascist cabal.
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| Saving Private Dietz |
| 07.27.03 (8:13 am) [edit] |
Bush's Death Toll in Iraq has risen to over 241 Americans, with 162 dying in active combat: representing more deaths than in Daddy Bush's Gulf War. Four of our service men have died since yesterday, following Wolfowitz and Bremer tour of the TV networks proclaiming that the Iraqi people are happy, and that our U.S. service men/women "over there" are tickled pink and morale couldn't be better. Yeah, right.
Would you tell the mafioso Dons Wolfowitz and Bremer that you aren't thrilled to do their bidding? Not if you hoped to return home in one piece, or even with a couple of bits & pieces missing! The facts on the ground tell a very different story. "You have a situation over there where everybody ain't happy; that's just the way it is," said Jack Gordon, a spokesman for the Army Reserve's 99th Regional Readiness Command. Who would have thought that our Pentagon would develop the fine art of understatement!
Saving Private Dietz and his brave comrades-in-arms, should be our first priority. Spec. Clinton Dietz, of the 3rd Infantry Division, bravely told an ABC News reporter on July 16th: "If [Defense Secretary] Donald Rumsfeld was here, I'd ask him for his resignation." Here's a man with the courage to face battle (something none of the Bush gang ever did), and the guts to say what many of us feel. Let's hope he makes it home alright ... people like Rummy & Wolfy sure don't want guys like that around.
The attacks waged against our citizens, families of our brave men & women in arms, and, our U.S. Military soldiers, who "dare" to criticize the blood-letting, by the corrupt Bush administration and their neo-con court jesters, is outrageous. It's an infringement upon the very freedoms the glib Bush mafia claims to be giving to the Iraqi people. Bremer brags that Iraqis are now free to go to the universities, hospitals available for all, and hundreds of new newspapers.
(Hmmmmm .... Consider that Bush supports the FCC closing down independent news outlets bought up by Corporate Robber-barons. Bush is doing nothing about over 45 million US citizens without health insurance. Bush is slashing services and increasing taxation for lower-income, middle-class, and fixed-income retirees: unable to afford to send their kids to universities. Perhaps the Bush gang should go to Iraq, since they award freedoms and services to Iraqi people, that they deny to the average American citizens.)
The wife of a soldier in Iraq was criticized for attempting to find out the status of her husband, and warning other wives in the same division-- in the aftermath of an attack outside Baghdad, where he is assigned. Refer to "Military Wife Rebuked for E-Mail" in today's Washington Post on : http://www.washingtonpost.com... . These brave men and women joined-up to serve their country; not to die based upon lies and deceit by a blood-thirsty Bush administration, who waged an illegal and immoral incursion into a sovereign country, to enrich their Corporate paymasters: Big Oil, Halliburton & Bechtel, etc...
We have a right and indeed a duty, to criticize the Bush administration. You won't see a Bush, Cheney, Rice, Rumsfeld, or Wolfowitz, amongst the casualties... the dead... the "collateral damage" in Iraq. Nope, their loved ones are enjoying the booty of the tax cuts for the rich, and "doing Old Europe" 1st class... while our boys & girls are dying.
(Read "Iraq Flap Shakes Rice's Image" on : http://www.washingtonpost.com... -- Scape-goating those in the "bowels" of the organisation, is the modus operandi of the Bush/Cheney/Rice/Rumsfeld /Wolfowitz Gang of Thugs. Why aren't the hyper-rich Bush gang & their Corporate Robber-barons who got juicy tax cuts contributing the $30 Million jackpots for fingering Udai & Qusai, and $25 Million for Saddam Hussein-- after all, this cock-up and quagmire is due to their inept & incompetent planning.)
How dare the White House & the Pentagon and other neo-cons criticize the citizens of this country; the fathers, mothers, wives, husbands, brothers, sisters, sons and daughters; and, the brave U.S. Military Men & Women-- who question the corrupt crimes perpetrated upon this country by the Corporate Robber-Baron CEO Bush & COO Cheney. Udai & Qusai may have used physical torture, but this administration's intimidation tactics and bully-boy tactics are consistent with dictatorial regimes we rightly condemn.
"We the People" are Shocked and Outraged (not Awed), by the Bush administration's callous and wanton spend-thrift waste of the Lives of our citizens and innocent Iraqis, and the Taxpayer's Treasure.
It is time to call upon Congress to do their duty and launch an open-door investigation into this administration's crimes and cover-ups. Should Congress fail to do their duty, we must voice our opposition to the neo-fascist, neo-feudal slave state the Bush administration is installing here at home and globally in 2004.
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| The Fallacy of Bush's Corporate U.S.A. Inc. |
| 07.26.03 (10:44 am) [edit] |
Bush and Cheney boasted that they would run the U.S.A. like a Corporation, with Bush serving as Chairman & CEO (Chief Executive Officer), and Cheney as the COO (Chief Operating Officer). They have indeed done so and it has been as perilous for America, as the corrupt practices of Bush's good buddy Kenny-boy Lay, Fastow and Skilling were for Enron.
The American people and the entire world should have been alarmed by this bizarre model that Bush & Cheney decided to super-impose upon Government. But it's been a model that the neo-con reactionaries have lusted to install here at home, and abroad from the Reagan years onwards. Sadly, since most people are very, very ignorant as to the operations and inter-workings of Corporations, there were few alarm bells rung. (An excellent article outlining the direction we're heading, by Clark Kissinger, entitled "The New Domestic Order" on : http://www.zmag.org/content/s... )
The fallacy of Bush's model for a Corporate U.S.A. Inc., is that the very missions, goals and objectives of a Democratic system of Government are entirely at odds with those of Corporations or Big Business.
The principles of our democratic system of government, established by the Founding Fathers, were based upon the European Enlightenment and the Social Contract or Principles of Political Right, by Jean Jacques Rousseau. Our Declaration of Independence that laid down the very mission that our Founding Fathers envisioned for our new nation, states: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness".
Corporations, on the other hand, do not hold any truths to be self-evident except for making a profit. Far from all men being created equal, there is a pyramid structure, and those at the top are above the rule of law, and may arbitrarily decide whom they will listen to; what actions they will take; and, the manner in which they will treat the underlings. The life, liberty and pursuit of happiness, of employees, doesn't matter "dittily-squatt" to the Corporate "top-dogs" and "fat-cats". In fact, the employees are an expense, and unless a given employee performs & performs well without asking any unpleasant questions-- he or she is ousted with no recourse whatsoever. (The only rights a worker has are protected by Government, not by Corporations who are working hard with Bush's support to eliminate them.)
Our Government is composed of laws first established under the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights, and, augumented with further legislation as new issues and problems are addressed and resolved via public discourse and informed consensus. This was what the Founding Fathers had in mind, which is why those who criticize legislation not found in the U.S. Constitution, as unnecessary, are ignorant of the process of eternal vigilance in a participative democracy.
Our body of laws are and should be able to be adjusted after a healthy and thorough public debate. There is a real danger when sneaky special interests (Rich Corporate Lobbyists) pay-off or bribe Congress to push through amendments in legislative bills, that aren't even presented to the public, and are not even publicly debated by our elected representatives. There have been far too many examples of this type of shenanigans by the Bush administration and the Republican Congress in the last few years. The White House calls a member of Congress at 5 minutes 'til midnight, just prior to the vote, and gives him an amendment to stick in a bill, which has nothing to do with the bill's purpose-- and, presto: Eli Lily executives pop open the champagne. (Read the text of the Homeland Security Bill to find see the gifts given by Bush (Daddy Bush was on the Board of Eli Lily) to the Pharmaceutical Corporations.) It is an affront to our system of government.
Corporations, unlike the Government, establish rules which they can arbitrarily change at will or at a whim. Indeed, they are only subject by law, to governmental regulations, necessary to refrain them from defrauding or endangering the public, their employees or investors. The wholesale de-regulation beginning in the Reagan years, led to the disastrous defrauding of investors by Corporate Robber-barons & Thieves, like Kenny-boy (Enron) Lay, Garry (Global Crossing Ltd) Winnick, and our own Baby (Harken Oil) Bush. In fact, a Utah stockbroker has created his own "Most Wanted" deck of cards for Corporate Robber-Barons (... hmmmm ... only hope that Bush is the King of Clubs, Cheney is the Queen, and that Rice, Rumsfeld & Wolfowitz are given their proper "suits" (empty?)-- for all the goodies they've shoveled towards Halliburton, Bechtel, Big Oil & Big Corporations).
Refer to the Utah stockbroker "Most Wanted" on : http://www.sltrib.com/2003/Ju...
Refer to Harvard Business Review article entitled "System Failure" on : http://afr.com/articles/2003/...
A public debate is needed regarding the insane blurring of the roles of Government and Corporations. We need to re-instate their different purposes and re-establish the respect one held for Government that has perniciously come under attack by the neo-con court jesters, funded by neo-fascist institutions like the AEI (American Enterprise Institute), who are soley interested in furthering the aims of Corporations and Corporate Robber-barons, without any care or concern about the welfare of Human beings, Workers, or the environment.
Tragically, these neo-con, neo-fascists promoting a neo-feudal slave state, also support the arbitrary, whimsical decision-making style of Bush, which is an anathema in a Democratic Leader. In fact, arbitrary rule is more akin to Dictators we condemn like Saddam Hussein. The bully-boy tactics used by Bush and Cheney are common in Corporations (just ask the whistle-blowers at Enron), but must not be permitted in Government: again we condemn that behaviour in dictatorial regimes. Bush, Cheney and their gang are known to punish those who cross them:-- sounds like Udai & Qusai, doesn't it. We ignore such corrupt, intimidation antics of our democratically (s)elected leaders at our own peril.
The Role of an Enlightened Democratic Government is to:
1) Uphold the law and order, without which no "freedom" can occur. (This is why the rhetoric about the USA giving "freedom" to Iraqis is so abominable, since freedom cannot be enjoyed in a climate of fear, chaos, and lawlessness.)
2) Uphold the structure of government and it's institutions, in order for the people to exercise their collective will through their representatives in Congress, the Executive, and the Judicial branches, all of whom have specific responsibilities defined under the constitution, to serve the people.
3) Protect those in society who are helpless in order that they are not tread upon by the powerful, to ensure that all citizens are indeed able to pursue, free of terror or tyranny, life, liberty and happiness. There is an economic tyranny on the low-income, middle-class and fixed-income retirees & elderly, perpetrated by Bush who gave massive tax cuts to the Rich, and thus, unjustly burdened those in need now paying the price in slashed services & increased local/state taxes.
4) Ensure that institutions exist which enable the citizens of a society to prosper: education, clean water, electricity, infrastructure, health care, police, firemen, and all those areas which collectively are needed for a healthy life. (It is ironic that L. Paul Bremer and Wolfowitz have boasted about hospitals working again in Iraq-- when Bush ignores the real problems of over 45 Million Americans with no health coverage right here in the U.S.A.)
5) Defend the country against invaders or aggressors. This does not imply an insane "Pre-emptive" Doctrine, in which the USA becomes the rogue aggressor.
These functions listed above, are the basic purposes of Government.
Corporations exist to make a profit. Without Government regulations, they will do whatever is necessary to enrich those at the Top of the Pyramid, and will exploit human and natural resources wantonly. This is the history of Big Business. Corporations must be regulated to ensure that:
1) Living wages are paid to workers. Ideally, Corporations would love to pay slave-labour wages to minimize their expenses and maximize their profits. They have been lobbying to eliminate minimum wage which is currently sub-poverty-level standard.
2) Reasonable working hours and vacation are protected. Otherwise, they would work people unreasonable hours. Indeed, the Bush administration is already pushing through corrupt legislation designed to eliminate over-time pay for those who are exploited to work on low wages.
3) Working conditions are safe. Read the history of the late 19th & early 20th century, where employees were exposed to hazardous conditions, often dying in mines or factories. The Corporate Robber-barons didn't care and were callous to the damage to health and lives lost.
4) Products and services are safe. Without regulation, food or other products will be sold which are unsafe and potentially life-threatening. Do you want to take a flight on an airplane, for example, which is not inspected? It costs money to ensure safety, that would otherwise fatten the already juicy profits of the "top-dogs" and "fat-cats", if regulation wasn't in place.
5) Environment is protected. The rape and ravage of the environment: polluting the streams and rivers, strip mining leaving areas devastated, killing wildlife habitats-- are all areas that Corporations are not interested in, unless government steps in and sets limits.
6) Accounting regulations and fair taxation is applied. In the UK and Europe, there are stricter accounting regulations to avoid the kind of fraud perpetrated upon the public by our hyper-greedy Corporate Thieves & Rapists. The Corporations have pushed through legislation to avoid using proper accounting practices and paying their fair share in taxes. This is a form of theft and rape of the public who bears the burden of their exploitation, and who pays to clean up their messes left behind in the wake of unemployment and ravaged environments.
Both investment and labour are needed for Corporations to profit. No Corporation can exist without labour, and consequently, the well-being of employees, their families, and their environment is a Right-- a Right hard-fought for by our ancestors with payment in blood. No gifts were awarded to Workers by the Corporate Robber-barons. In their lust to "take the money and run", they are currently with Bush's support, out to eliminate: overtime, social security, public education, and other protections of those who are not rich.
The Bush & Cheney administration are indeed the Corporate President, obscenely attempting to turn the USA & the World into a Global Corporation-- a playground for Corporate Robber-barons, with Human Beings and the Environment, their toys to be exploited.
Bush is like his buddies, Kenny-boy Lay & Cheney, who are callous, thuggish and only acting on behalf of their own greedy interests, without concern for the interests of the People of this country. In that manner, Bush is very much the typical neo-CEO, and Cheney is very much the typical neo-COO.
Our elected leaders chosen to serve the People, must be of a higher caliber than this:
The language a man uses, gives insight into his mind-- and the mind of President Bush is petty and mean.
The policies a man sets, gives insight into his vision-- and the vision of President Bush is limited to the welfare of richest of the rich.
The relationships a man establishes, gives insight into his curiosity-- and the curiosity of Bush is impoverished.
"We the People" had better profoundly consider our choices in the upcoming 2004 election. Please contact your Congressmen and women and demand that the Bush administration be investigated and held accountable for their deceptions and lies, which cost our citizens heavily in Lives and Treasure, in Iraq. (Congress may be e-mailed on: http://www.congress.org)
Those who benefit from the immoral and illegal incursion into Iraq are not those who died, nor the Iraqi people-- but Bush's Corporate buddies like Big Oil, Halliburton & Bechtel:-- war-profitteers who are making out "big time". Furthermore, these Robber-barons have just been awarded fat tax cuts for the rich. But then the Bush Corporate U.S.A. Inc. Motto, was taken right out of the Leona Helmsley handbook: "Only the little people pay taxes".
The Bush administration, Kenny-boy (Enron) Lay, and Corporate Robber-barons, as well as the armed-robber who steals from the local Circle-K, should not be above the Rule of Law. My goodness, even as early as 1215, the Magna Carta codified the principle that even Kings were not above the Rule of Law. When will we ever learn?
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| An American Citizen's Response to Mr. Cheney |
| 07.25.03 (7:31 pm) [edit] |
The Bush administration is desperate to eradicate the scandal and questions surrounding their lies and deceit regarding the "imminent threat" posed by Saddam Hussein with massive WMDs he would either use himself or give to terrorists.
The Bush administration passionately hopes that the American public will forget all about their crimes, in order to avoid a potential investigation which would probably result in Bush's impeachment and removal from office. Moreover, they are fearful that the increasing outrage at their abuse of power will at the very least, result in a demand for resignations of those who misled Americans and the entire world, most notably: Cheney, Rice, Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz.
In a vain attempt to rationalize post facto, the Bush administration's casus belli, to wage war upon a sovereign nation, Iraq, Mr. Cheney gave a speech at the neo-cons favorite watering hole, the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), where he could depend upon his court jesters to cheer at the appropriate pauses.
"At a safe remove from the danger, some are now trying to cast doubt upon the decision to liberate Iraq," Cheney said. "The ability to criticize is one of the great strengths of our democracy. But those who do so have an obligation to answer this question: How could any responsible leader have ignored the Iraqi threat?"
An American Citizen's response to Mr. Cheney, is as follows:
Mr. Cheney,
The greatest strength of our democracy is a set of codified laws, established over the centuries, in order that our citizens comprising diverse faiths, background, cultures, and heritages, may live side-by-side, in relative peace and an assurance of equal justice for all. Theoretically, in our system, no man/woman is above the law, be they a President, Vice-President, Government Official, Rich Investor, Teacher, Journalist, Librarian, Congressman or woman, Carpenter, Engineer, Laborer, Waitress, Pauper, or Unemployed person.
Under our system of government, our body of laws is based upon the US Constitution, Bill of Rights, and those amendments and legislations adopted in order to deliver justice to all. This system of laws has constituted a beacon of light for the entire world.
The Bush administration has trampled on these laws. Our leaders have no legal or moral authority to wage war, based upon deceit or purposely misleading our people-- irrespective of the motives. There is a sacred bond of trust between the citizens of a country, and their leaders; and, once betrayed or broken, it cannot be re-established. And this is not mere criticism, but instead, trust is fundamental to the relationship of our leaders to the people they take a solemn oath to serve.
The Bush administration has betrayed our trust. You are mistaken, Mr. Cheney, in the wrong-headed question that you pose to those of us who are outraged by the Bush administration's behaviour. You ask us to consider, "How could any responsible leader have ignored the Iraqi threat?"
"We the People" would not have expected any responsible leader to have ignored any CREDIBLE or REAL threat. Iraq was not a CREDIBLE or REAL threat. CIA Director George Tenet stated before he was coerced to appear with Powell at the UN: "Baghdad for now appears to be drawing a line short of conducting terrorist attacks with conventional or C.B.W. against the United States. Should Saddam conclude that a U.S.-led attack could no longer be deterred, he probably would become much less constrained in adopting terrorist actions." Many other officials and experts warned that Iraq posed no threat to the USA, prior to Bush's war. (Refer to: "The Prosecution Calls ..." on : http://www.tompaine.com/featu... )
Firstly, it was the Bush administration's responsibility to demonstrate a concrete threat. You, Bush, Rice, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, and Powell, all lied and deceived the American People and the entire world regarding the nature of the threat. Not only was the threat not "imminent", but there was indeed no threat, as Saddam Hussein had expressed no intention, and had no interest in attacking the USA. Moreover, the basis of the threat which you indicated existed: WMDs, re-constituted nuclear programmes, and, relationships with terrorist organisations-- were all bogus and doctored.
However, even if Saddam Hussein had obtained large quantities of WMDs or nuclear weapons, the Bush administration had an obligation to work with the world community to determine an agreed way forward to deal with Iraq as a sovereign nation. (e.g. Bush is dealing with North Korea through China and its neighbors). Additionally, the Bush gang obfuscated by implying Saddam Hussein was a terrorist, or linked with terrorism-- but instead he was a ruthless dictator (like Mugabe, Kim Jong Il, Saudi Royal Family, etc.), ruling over a recognized country.
The UN Inspection process was a deterrent to any possible danger, that Saddam Hussein might have posed to us, our allies, or his own neighbors. Indeed, his own neighbors were opposed to our illegal and immoral incursion into Iraq.
The Bush administration's contempt for the UN and those countries who disagreed with his policies, demonstrated a lack of capability to be a credible and respected world leader. Furthermore, the "Pre-emptive" Doctrine is a coded term for hitlerian-style aggression and incursion, and is a morally bankrupt philosophy.
The only credible justification for an attack upon another country, even if other countries are opposed, is if one is under attack or about to be attacked. In other words, self-defense. Bush's war on Iraq was not self-defense.
Candidate Bush said he would bring civility to Washington D.C., and claimed that one of his strengths was his ability to bring those of differing viewpoints and political parties together. Not only has he demonstrated an appalling lack of ability to bring others together, but his bully-boy tactics have demonstrated that he is inept and incompetent to deal on the world stage.
Bush has created a climate in Washington D.C. that is more acrimonious than any in recent history. The Bush administration's secrecy and lack of transparency is a danger to our democratic system of government. The Bush administration was not given a mandate, but has recklessly used coercion and bribery to achieve ends that are harmful to many Americans and the entire world.
Nixon was destroyed by the Watergate scandal based upon covering-up a break-in due to paranoia about his election prospects. Clinton was impeached because he lied under oath about a sexual relationship. Neither of these abuses of power, resulted in the loss of lives of our American Military personnel, or innocent civilians.
The Bush administration lies and deceit have resulted in Blood-letting of hundreds of our American citizens, and thousands of innocent Iraqis.
You glibly stated that criticism is a great strength of democracy. But criticism is meaningless, unless it can affect changes based upon a national discourse and informed consensus. You and the Bush gang have squelched questions, discussions, and investigations. Our most sacred strength of democracy is the rule of law, and should that fall, we will no longer have the Republic for which it stands.
"We the People" will continue to press Congress to launch an investigation into the Bush administration's crimes. Should Congress refuse to do their duty, then we will express our outrage in 2004.
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| "Inquire Within" Parts I & II - Good Government |
| 07.25.03 (5:49 pm) [edit] |
Every so often, I publish here an excellent article, mined out of a more obscure, but respectable source. The following article by John Dean, entitled "Inquire Within", published on http://www.tompaine.com, is well-worth reading:
"Inquire Within" http://www.tompaine.com/featu...
John Dean is the former White House counsel for President Richard Nixon and author of the new book, The Rehnquist Choice: The Untold Story of the Nixon Appointment that Redefined the Supreme Court.
The heart of President Bush's January 28 State of the Union address was his case for going to war against Saddam Hussein. In making his case, the president laid out fact after fact about Saddam's alleged unconventional weapons. Indeed, the claim that these weapons of mass destruction (WMD) posed an imminent threat was his primary argument in favor of war.
Now, as more and more time passes with WMD still not found, it seems that some of those facts may not have been true. In particular, recent controversy has focused on the president's citations of British intelligence purportedly showing that Saddam was seeking "significant quantities of uranium from Africa."
In this column, I will examine the publicly available evidence relating to this and other statements in the State of the Union concerning Saddam's WMD. Obviously I do not have access to the classified information the president doubtlessly relied upon. But much of the relevant information he drew from appears to have been declassified and made available for inquiring minds.
What I found in critically examining Bush's evidence is not pretty. The African uranium matter is merely indicative of larger problems and troubling questions of potential and widespread criminality when taking the nation to war. It appears that not only the Niger uranium hoax, but most everything else that Bush said about Saddam Hussein's weapons, was false, fabricated, exaggerated or phony.
In his State of the Union, Bush repeatedly presented beliefs, estimates and educated guesses as established fact. Genuine facts are truths that can be known or are observable, and the distance between fact and belief is uncertainty, which can be infinite. Authentic facts are not based on hopes or wishes or even probabilities. Now, it is little wonder that none of the purported WMDs have been discovered in Iraq.
So egregious and serious are Bush's misrepresentations that they appear to be a deliberate effort to mislead Congress and the public. So arrogant and secretive is the Bush White House that only a special prosecutor can effectively answer and address these troubling matters. Since the Independent Counsel statute has expired, the burden is on President Bush to appoint a special prosecutor -- and if he fails to do so, he should be held accountable by Congress and the public.
In making this observation, I realize that some Republicans will pound the patriotism drum, claiming that anyone who questions Bush's call to arms is politicizing the Iraqi war. But I have no interest in partisan politics, only good government -- which is in serious trouble when we stop debating these issues, or absurdly accuse those who do of treason.
As Ohio's Republican Senator Robert A. Taft, a man whose patriotism cannot be questioned, remarked less than two weeks after Pearl Harbor, "[C]riticism in time of war is essential to the maintenance of any kind of democratic government.... [T]he maintenance of the right of criticism in the long run will do the country... more good than it will do the enemy [who might draw comfort from it], and it will prevent mistakes which might otherwise occur." (Emphasis added.)
It is in that sprit that I address Bush's troubling assertions.
A Closer Look At Bush's Facts in the State of the Union
Bush offered eight purported facts as the gist of his case for war. It appears he presented what was believed to be the strongest evidence first:
Purported Bush Fact 1: "The United Nations concluded in 1999 that Saddam Hussein had biological weapons materials sufficient to produce over 25,000 liters of anthrax -- enough doses to kill several million people. He hasn't accounted for that material. He has given no evidence that he has destroyed it. "
Source: Bush cites the United Nations Special Commission (UNSCOM) 1999 Report to the U.N. Security Council. But most all the report's numbers are estimates, in which UNSCOM had varying degrees of confidence.
In addition, UNSCOM did not specifically make the claim that Bush attributes to it. Instead, the report only mentions precursor materials ("growth media") that might be used to develop anthrax. One must make a number of additional assumptions to produce the "over 25,000 liters of anthrax" the president claimed.
Earlier the same month, in a January 23 document, the State Department similarly cited the UNSCOM report, although noticeably more accurately than the president: "The U.N. Special Commission concluded that Iraq did not verifiably account for, at a minimum, 2160 kg of growth media. This is enough to produce 26,000 liters of anthrax." (Emphasis added.) State does not explain how it projected a thousand liters more than the president.
And two days after the State of the Union, in testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Deputy Secretary of State Richard L. Armitage addressed the UNSCOM estimates in a more truthful light: as a reference to the "biological agent that U.N. inspectors believe Iraq produced." (Emphasis added.)
It short, in the State of the Union, the president transformed UNSCOM estimates, guesses and approximations into a declaration of exact amounts, which is a deception. He did the same with his statement about botulinum toxin.
Purported Bush Fact 2: "The Union Nations concluded that Saddam Hussein had materials sufficient to produce more than 38,000 liters of botulinum toxin -- enough to subject millions of people to death by respiratory failure. He hasn't accounted for that material. He has given no evidence that he has destroyed it."
Source: Bush cited the same UNSCOM Report. Again, he transformed estimates, or best guesses -- based on the work of the UNSCOM inspectors and informants of uncertain reliability -- into solid fact.
His own State Department more accurately referred to the same information as "belief," not fact: "Iraq declared 19,000 liters (of Botulinum toxin) [but the] U.N. believes it could have produced more than double that amount." (Emphasis added.)
Purported Bush Fact 3: "Our intelligence sources estimate that Saddam Hussein had the materials to produce as much as 500 tons of sarin, mustard and VX nerve agent. In such quantities, these chemical agents also could kill untold thousands. He has not accounted for these materials."
Source: Here, at least Bush admits that he is drawing upon estimates -- but this time he leaves out other qualifiers that would have signaled the uncertainty his own "intelligence sources" felt about these purported facts.
In October 2002, a CIA report claimed that Iraq "has begun renewed production of chemical warfare agents, probably including mustard, sarin, cyclosarin and VX." Bush omitted the "probably." The CIA also added still more caveats: "More than 10 years after the Gulf war, gaps in Iraqi accounting and current production capabilities strongly suggest that Iraq maintains a stockpile of chemical agents, probably VX, sarin, cyclosarin and mustard." (Emphases added.)
Bush, his speechwriters and his advisers left all these caveats out. How could they have? Did they not think anyone would notice the deceptions?
Purported Bush Fact 4: "U.S. intelligence indicates that Saddam Hussein had upwards of 30,000 munitions capable of delivering chemical agents. Inspectors recently turned up 16 of them, despite Iraq's recent declaration denying their existence. Saddam Hussein has not accounted for the remaining 29,984 of these prohibited munitions. He has given no evidence that he has destroyed them."
Source: Bush cites "U.S. intelligence" for this information, but it appears to have first come from UNSCOM. If so, he seems to have doubled the number of existing munitions that might be, as he argued, "capable of delivering chemical agents."
UNSCOM's report, in its declassified portions, suggests that UNSCOM "supervised the destruction of nearly 40,000 Chemical munitions (including rockets, artillery and Aerial bombs, 28,000 of which were filled)." And UNSCOM's best estimate was that there were 15,000 -- not 30,000 -- artillery shells unaccounted for.
The CIA's October 2002 report also acknowledges that "UNSCOM supervised the destruction of more than 40,000 chemical munitions." Yet none of its declassified documents support Bush's contention in the State of the Union that 30,000 munitions capable of delivering chemical weapons remain unaccounted for.
Where did Bush's number come from? Was it real -- or invented?
Purported Bush Fact 5: "From three Iraqi defectors we know that Iraq, in the late 1990s, had several mobile biological weapons labs. These are designed to produce germ warfare agents, and can be moved from place to place to evade inspectors. Saddam Hussein has not disclosed these facilities. He has given no evidence that he has destroyed them."
Source: The three informants have still not been identified -- even though the administration now has the opportunity to offer asylum to them and their families, and then to disclose their identities, or at least enough identifying information for the public to know that they actually exist, and see why the government was prone to believe them.
Moreover, there is serious controversy as to whether the mobile weapons labs have been found. After the war, the CIA vigorously claimed two such labs had been located. But Iraqi scientists say the labs' purpose was to produce hydrogen for weather balloons. And many months later, no other Iraqi scientists -- or others with reason to know -- have been found to contradict their claims. Meanwhile, the State Department has publicly disputed the CIA (and DIA) claim that such weapons labs have been found.
All informant intelligence is questionable. Based on this intelligence, the president should have said that "we believe" that such labs existed -- not that "we know" that they do. "Belief" opens up the possibility we could be wrong; claimed "knowledge" does not.
As with his other State of the Union statements, the president presented belief as fact and projected a certainty that seems to have been entirely unjustified -- a certainty on the basis of which many Americans, trusting their president, supported the war.
"Inquire Within, Part Two " http://www.tompaine.com/featu...
John Dean is the former White House counsel for President Richard Nixon and author of the new book, The Rehnquist Choice: The Untold Story of the Nixon Appointment that Redefined the Supreme Court.
Purported Bush Fact 6: "The International Atomic Energy Agency confirmed in the 1990s that Saddam Hussein had an advanced nuclear weapons development program, had a design for a nuclear weapon and was working on five different methods of enriching uranium for a bomb."
Source: The IAEA did provide some information to this effect, but the IAEA's own source was Iraq itself. According to Garry B. Dillon, the 1997-99 head of IAEA's Iraq inspection team, Iraq was begrudgingly cooperating with UNSCOM and IAEA inspections until August 1998.
Moreover, a crucial qualifier was left out: Whatever the program looked like in the early or mid-1990s, by 1998, the IAEA was confident it was utterly ineffective.
As the IAEA's Dillon further reports, as of 1998, "there were no indications of Iraq having achieved its program goals of producing a nuclear weapon; nor were there any indications that there remained in Iraq any physical capability for production of amounts of weapon-usable nuclear material of any practical significance." (Emphases added)
Later, IAEA's own January 20, 2003 Update Report to the UN's Security Council reiterated the very same information Dillon had reported.
It is deceptive to report Iraq's 1990's effort at a nuclear program without also reporting that -- according to a highly reliable source, the IAEA -- that attempt had come to nothing as of 1998. It is even more deceptive to leave this information out and then to go on -- as Bush did -- to suggest that Iraq's purportedly successful nuclear program was now searching for uranium, implying it was operational when it was not.
In making this claim, Bush included his now discredited 16-word claim.
Purported Bush Fact 7: "The British government has learned Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa."
Source: Media accounts have shown that the uranium story was untrue -- and that at least some in the Bush administration knew it. I will not reiterate all of the relevant news reports here, but I will highlight a few.
The vice president's office had questions about the Niger uranium story. Ambassador Wilson was dispatched to learn the truth and found it was counterfeit information. Wilson advised the CIA and State Department that the Niger documents were forgeries, and presumably the vice president learned these facts.
The Niger uranium story was reportedly removed from Bush's prior October 7, 2002 speech because it was believed unreliable -- and it certainly became no more reliable thereafter. Indeed, only days after Bush's State of the Union, Colin Powell refused to use the information in his United Nation's speech because he did not believe it to be reliable.
Either Bush's senior advisers were aware of this hoax, or there was a frightening breakdown at the National Security Council -- which is designed to avoid such breakdowns. Neither should be the case.
In fact, it is unconscionable, under the circumstances, that the uranium fabrication was included in the State of the Union. And equally weak, if not also fake, was Bush's final point about Saddam's unconventional weapons.
Purported Bush Fact 8: "Our intelligence sources tell us that [Saddam Hussein] has attempted to purchase high strength aluminum tubes suitable for nuclear weapons production."
Source: Bush is apparently referring to the CIA's October 2002 report -- but again, qualifiers were left out, to transform a statement of belief into one of purported fact.
The CIA report stated that "Iraq's aggressive attempts to obtain proscribed high-strength aluminum tubes are of significant concern. All intelligence experts agree that Iraq is seeking nuclear weapons and that these tubes could be used in a centrifuge enrichment program. Most intelligence specialists assess this to be the intended use, but some believe that these tubes are probably intended for conventional weapons programs." (Emphases added).
By January 20, 2003 the IAEA -- which has more expertise than the CIA in the matter -- had completed its investigation in Iraq of the aluminum tubes. It concluded that, as the Iraqi government claimed, the tubes had nothing to do with nuclear weapons, rather they were part of their rocket program.
Thus, eight days before Bush's State of the Union, the IAEA stated in its report to the Security Council, "The IAEA's analysis to date indicates that the specifications of the aluminum tubes recently sought by Iraq appear to be consistent with reverse engineering of rockets. While it would be possible to modify such tubes for the manufacture of centrifuges, they are not directly suitable for such use."
In short, Bush claimed the tubes were "suitable for nuclear weapons production" when only a week earlier, the IAEA -- which had reason to know -- plainly said that they were not. Today, of course, with no nuclear facilities found, it is clear that the evidence that the IAEA provided was correct.
Bush's Stonewalling And The Polk Precedent
Bush closed his WMD argument with these words: "Saddam Hussein has not credibly explained these activities. He clearly has much to hide." The he added, "The dictator of Iraq is not disarming. To the contrary, he is deceiving."
Unfortunately, it seems that Bush may have been deceiving too. Urgent and unanswered questions surround each of the eight statements I have set forth. Questions surrounding the uranium story are only indicative, for similar questions must be asked about the other statements as well.
But so far, only the uranium claim has been acknowledged as a statement the president should not have made. Nonetheless, the White House had been stonewalling countless obvious and pressing questions, such as: When did Bush learn the uranium story was false, or questionable? Why did he not advise Congress until forced to do so? Who in the Bush White House continued to insist on the story's inclusion in the State of the Union address? Was Vice President Cheney involved? Who got the CIA to accept the British intelligence report when they had doubts about it?
Bush is not the first president to make false statements to Congress when taking the nation to war. President Polk lied the nation into war with Mexico so he could acquire California as part of his Manifest Destiny. It was young Illinois Congressman Abraham Lincoln who called for a Congressional investigation of Polk's warmongering.
Lincoln accused Polk of "employing every artifice to work round, befog and cover up" the reasons for war with Mexico. Lincoln said he was "fully convinced, of what I more than suspect already, that [Polk] is deeply conscious of being wrong." In the end, after taking the president to task, the House of Representatives passed a resolution stating that the war with Mexico had been "unnecessary and unconstitutionally commenced by the president."
Not unlike Polk, Bush is currently hanging onto a very weak legal thread -- claiming his statement about the Niger uranium was technically correct because he said he was relying on the British report. But that makes little difference: If Bush knew the British statement was likely wrong, then he knowingly made a false statement to Congress. One can't hide behind a source one invokes knowing it doesn't hold water.
Because Bush has more problems than his deceptive statement about Niger uranium, Congressman Lincoln's statement to Polk echoes through history with particular relevance for Bush: "Let him answer fully, fairly and candidly. Let him answer with facts and not with arguments.... Let him attempt no evasion, no equivocation."
It Is A Crime To Make False Statements To Congress
Could Bush and his aides be stonewalling because it is a crime to give false information to Congress? It wasn't a crime in President Polk's day. Today, it is a felony under the false statements statute.
This 1934 provision makes it a serious offense to give a false information to Congress. It is little used, but has been actively available since 1955. That year, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled, in U.S. v. Bramblet, that the statute could be used to prosecute a Congressman who made a false statement to the Clerk of the Disbursing Office of the House of Representatives, for Congress comes under the term "department" as used in the statutes.
Two members of the Bush administration, Admiral John Poindexter and Elliot Abrams, learned about this false statements law the hard way, during the Iran Contra investigation. Abrams pled guilty to two misdemeanors for false statements to Congress, as did Robert McFarlane. (Both were subsequently pardoned by President George H.W. Bush.) Poindexter and Oliver North fought the charges, and won on an unrelated legal technicality.
Later, one of McFarlane's lawyers, Peter W. Morgan, wrote a law journal article about using the false statements statute to prosecute executive officials appearing before Congress. Morgan was troubled by the breadth of the law. It does not require a specific intent to deceive the Congress. It does not require that statements be written or that they be sworn. Congress is aware of the law's breadth and has chosen not to change it.
Maybe presciently, Morgan noted that the false statements statute even reaches "misrepresentations in a president's State of the Union address." To which I would add, a criminal conspiracy to mislead Congress, which involved others at the Bush White House, could also be prosecuted under a separate statute, which makes it a felony to conspire to defraud the government.
Need for A Special Prosecutor To Investigate the WMD Claims
There is an unsavory stench about Bush's claims to the Congress and the nation about Saddam Hussein's WMD threat. The deceptions are too apparent. There are simply too many unanswered questions, which have been growing daily. If the Independent Counsel law were still in existence, this situation would justify the appointment of an Independent Counsel.
Because that law has expired, if President Bush truly has nothing to hide, he should appoint a special prosecutor. After all, Presidents Nixon and Clinton, when not subject to the Independent Counsel law, appointed special prosecutors to investigate matters much less serious. If President Bush is truly the square shooter he portrays himself to be, he should appoint a special prosecutor to undertake an investigation.
Ideally, the investigation ought to be concluded -- and the issue cleared up -- well before the 2004 election, so voters know the character of the men (and women) they may or may not be re-electing.
Family, loved ones and friends of those who have died, and continue to die, in Iraq deserve no less.
The author thanks Richard Leone for the quote from Senator Taft, which is drawn from his newly-released work The War On Our Freedoms. He also thanks Professor Stanley I. Kutler for the quote of Congressman Lincoln demanding that President Polk answer without evasion or equivocation.
This commentary first appeared on FindLaw.com on July 18, 2003.
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| The Real Story & The Real Scandal |
| 07.25.03 (7:54 am) [edit] |
The Media is not reporting the Real Story and the Real Scandal surrounding 9/11, or the incursion into Iraq. Why not? Ask the Media moguls who see the Bush administration as a "gift sent by God" who will hand over the media ownership "lock-stock-and-barrel" to themselves, irrespective of the fact that knowledgeable citizens, and Republican & Democratic Congressmen and women alike, are opposed to the FCC's blatantly corrupt ruling. Indeed, the Republican-ruled House of Representatives voted wisely in a staggering 400-21 majority to over-turn an obviously wrong-headed FCC ruling. Despite White House threats & coercion, they're not as keen, as yet, to turn us into the neo-fascist state, as fast as Bush & Cheney would make it so.
With the news outlets increasingly owned by a few "top-dogs" and "fat-cats" who will push smaller, independent journalists out, and cash in by streamlining the Press and gaining ever-so-many-more big bucks in productivity savings-- "We the People" will obtain our information from fewer and fewer sources. This is dangerous. We claim to love "freedom": This trend will imperil our freedom.
The Media should not be rationalized-- if anything it should be expanded with less ownership than our FCC rules currently allow. During this era of a neo-fascist, neo-corporate state re-constituted by Bush and Cheney, more than ever, many independent reporters, and a wide-range & variety of coverage are needed, not less. The fewer our news and media sources, the more limited, influenced and coerced our Press will become by the corrupt Bush/Cheney junta and their corporate power-brokers.
Hence, even now, we're not being told the truth about 9/11 and about the incursion into Iraq.
The Real Story & The Real Scandal reported by the 9/11 Commission, is not that the amorphous FBI or CIA agents didn't do their jobs properly. Indeed, some of the agents attempted to inform their superiors that Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda organisation would strike around 9/11. The Real Story & The Real Scandal is that President Bush, Vice-President Cheney, and NSA Rice will not disclose what they knew, the intelligence they were privy to, prior to 9/11.
Indeed, NSA Condi Rice had memorandum from the intelligence agencies on her desk prior to 9/11 advising of the dangers of al Qaeda, and that an attack upon the USA was imminent. Her predecessor, Sandy Berger, had advised her that Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda would be her most critical security risk. She did nothing. Indeed, she said that they knew highjacking might occur prior to the attacks upon the World Trade Centre, Pentagon, etc., but could not imagine the highjackers ramming airplanes into buildings. Hmmmm... does that mean, Ms. Rice, you didn't think highjackings were sufficient cause to increase airport security and warn the public? (Perhaps, Bush & Rice should spend less time focusing on football games which they love to watch together. A professional hired to run the NSA is tasked to work with the agency's staff to enumerate potential security risks, scenarios for terrorist attacks, and execute plans for their avoidance and disaster recovery. Rice is clearly "in over her head" and incompetent to serve as NSA.)
The Senate Intelligence Committee should establish hearings and subpoena the Bush administration to testify under oath regarding their knowledge in advance of 9/11, including Cheney's top-secret meetings with the Corporations, Big Oil and Media Barons, to establish the ways and means that the Bush gang used the 9/11 attacks to wage their incursion into Iraq. Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz were tripping over themselves in their arrogant panic-stricken modus operandi on 9/11, desperate to launch an attack post-haste upon Iraq. Why did Bush & Cheney lust after a war in Iraq? What were their real motives?
There is indeed a link between 9/11 and Iraq-- not the phony hyped-up lie that Bush, Cheney, Rice, Rumsfeld & Wolfowitz, shoved down our throats-- but a link manufactured by Bush and his gang who manipulated events and information, that has enabled them to push-through legislation advantageous to Corporations, and harmful to the elderly, low-income, and middle-class Americans, as well as the thousands of innocent lives lost and blood spilt, both on 9/11, and in this horrific Iraqi incursion.
A few days ago, the scary Mr. Cheney gave a talk at the neo-fascist "think-tank", the AEI, with the goon Chalabi sitting next to Mrs. Cheney. Cheney pathetically attempted to say that it's okay to lie, sacrifice our boys & girls, massacre thousands of Iraqis, 'cause Saddam Hussein wasn't nice, and the Iraqi people are "free". "Freedom"? Chaos in Iraq; infrastructure destroyed; thousands of lives lost; no jobs; terror due to lawlessness. Ooooopppppsssss, but they're "free".
Hmmmm, someone should remind the dishonest Mr. Cheney, that his cabal have decided unilaterally to sell-off all of Iraq's assets to his Corporate Robber-baron buddies, and that the Iraqi people have no say in the matter. Moreover, someone should remind the thug, Cheney, that his cabal have decided which Corporations will get fat contracts, and the Iraqi people have no voice in either the review or selection of contracts, and are not permitted to select the best firms offerring the best deals to best benefit the Iraqi people. Some freedom!
The Media is not reporting the Real Story & The Real Scandal regarding the incursion into Iraq, which was a whole-sale Corporate rape of their country by Bush & Cheney's Corporate buddies, promised well in advance of 9/11.
The American People and the World have been conned and scammed. Bush can't even remember his own stumble-bumble rhetoric from one Karl Rove speech to the next, when recently he said in a radio address that one of the reasons we went to war is that Saddam Hussein wouldn't let inspectors into Iraq. Bush probably believes that the right-wingers will believe him! To be a neo-conservative is to believe whatever you're told NOW, and to be sufficiently "well-disciplined" to forget the PAST. Memory is an inconvenient little bugger in Bush's New World Order!
The Senate Intelligence Committee should establish hearings and subpoena the Bush administration to testify under oath regarding their knowledge of the Iraqi WMD and nuclear programmes in advance of waging their illegal & immoral incursion into Iraq. The lies told by Bush, Cheney, Rice, Rumsfeld, & Wolfowitz, and Powell's pathetic "dog-and-pony-show" at the UN, were a disgrace, from which this country has a right, and a duty to extricate itself.
The Media Moguls aka Rupert Murdoch, who is behind the neo-fascist Fox News channel, and is attempting to destroy the BBC, in order to acquire various arms of this great institution-- is greedily attempting to grab all the news outlets & channels possible. To do so, these Media Robber-barons are quite happy to glorify a corrupt administration which will give them the reigns of power they seek. These Media "big-wigs" wined & dined the three Republican FCC board members, including the corrupt Chairman Powell (who said he'll step down after he's finished his dirty work), refused to hold public hearings, and ignored the thousands of requests from citizens to block this ruling. They effectively reported that they got all the "intelligence" they needed from the Media Moguls -- just like Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rice & Wolfowitz get all their "intelligence" from Halliburton, Bechtel, & Big Oil.
By the way, FCC Chairman Powell is Colin Powell's son who got his job due to his Daddy's connections: this used to be called nepotism, and nepotism used to be considered shameful and in some cases illegal. Not anymore! The gifts, world-wide trips & vacations, and other goodies, lavished upon the three Republican board members including the corrupt Powell (no wonder he can step-down-- he's probably got enough booty now to retire for good!), by the Media Moguls, used to be called bribery, and it used to be illegal. Not anymore! Now it's the standard modus operandi in Washington D.C.
Our sacred motto "Don't Tread on Us" has been transformed in the neo-Washington D.C.-snake-pit, by the Corporate Paymasters and their willing Whores who profit at the expense of America, into "Don't Tread on ME, in My Mad Dash to Cash In Big-time Off of My Connections". One wonders what they see when they look into the mirror: Nothing! No One's There! They Sure As Hell Don't See America!
"We the People" have an obligation to stop this obscene corruption of our very system of democracy, our free press, and our rule of law. It is imperative that we call upon our US Congress (http://www.congress.org) to:
1. Call for investigations into the Bush administration's crimes surrounding the 9/11 attack, and their illegal and immoral incursion into Iraq;
2. Call for the Congress to uphold their rejection of the FCC ruling handing over ownership to a few media moguls with delusions of grandeur. The Bush White House reported they will veto Congress's rejection of the FCC's corrupt ruling. Congress should be called upon to over-ride his veto.; and,
3. Call for the trial and impeachment of Bush and Cheney, and the resignations of Rice, Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz. They are all unfit to serve in public office.
We must Stop the Corporate Reign and Take-over of America Now!
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| Bush Administration Ignorant of Iraq - Two More Americans Killed Today |
| 07.23.03 (4:20 pm) [edit] |
The Bush administration seems to make the same mistake over and over again. Isn't that the first symptom of insanity? They implied that the deaths of Udai and Qusai would inspire fearful Iraqis to gain confidence and rally around the US occupation. This is as absurd as the fairy-tale we were told in the pre-war propaganda sales-pitch that once we entered Baghdad cheering crowds would greet us as the French did when the US tanks rolled into Paris, in the final days of WW2. Neither of Bush's lies convince anyone but those blind to objective reality.
Just how many Human Lives and Treasure will Americans be conned out of by this corrupt Bush/Cheney junta?
The BBC reports: "Two US soldiers killed in Iraq"
"US troops come under daily attack in Iraq: Two American soldiers have been killed and eight others injured in two separate attacks on military convoys in Iraq on Wednesday, the US military says. Both assaults - one near the northern city Mosul, the other in the central town of Ramadi - involved what US Central Command described as "improvised explosive devices" exploding near American vehicles."
"The Mosul attack reportedly involved an explosion detonated by remote control."
"More than 40 US soldiers have died in action in Iraq since the war that toppled Saddam Hussein was declared over on 1 May."
"Wednesday morning's fatalities came amid hopes that reports of the deaths of the former president's sons would sap the morale of those launching attacks on US forces."
Bush's rhetoric would be hilarious, if it wasn't so bizarrely dishonest. On 1st May, in his bombastic photo-op on the air-craft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln, he declared "Mission Accomplished!" and that the Iraqi people were free of the evil regime. Bush can't remember what he says from one Karl Rove speech to the next:-- Today Bush states that finally the Iraqi people are free of the evil regime. When was it: 1st May or 23rd July, or some future date?
No wonder the Iraqi people want physical proof of the Hussein brothers deaths:-- they're smart enough not to trust Bush's orwellian double-speak and outright lies. Iraqis continue to tell reporters and military experts that the WMDs were destroyed decades ago. We would do well to follow the Iraqi example, "connect the dots", and expose this corrupt Bush/Cheney cabal for the liars they are, too!
The Bush administration is ignorant of geography, culture, history, finance, and civics. They have demonstrated themselves to be a cabal of neo-fascist fanatics prepared to destroy this country, lives of innocent people, and squander treasure for their own corrupt aims. By the way, you'll notice it's other people's lives, and the good ole' American taxpayer's treasure!
"We the People" should stop fooling ourselves. We're being scammed by Bush in his insane, inept foreign policies, and his corporate-take-all domestic policies. Call for the Bush administration's trial and impeachment now!
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| One Attack every Two Hours in Iraq |
| 07.23.03 (10:00 am) [edit] |
There is one attack every two hours in Iraq. A US Soldier is dying practically every day, and the morale of our US Military men and women is desperately low and disenchanted. These brave men and women are continuing to place their precious lives at risk, based upon lies told by Bush, Cheney, Rice, Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz.
The fact that Saddam Hussein's two sons, Udai & Qusai, were killed by our US Military doesn't change that fact. (Paid for by the Good 'Ole American Taxpayer: $30 Million Dollar Jackpot + $25 Million for Daddy Hussein-- to make up for Bush/Cheney/Rice/Rummy/Wo lfowitz's cock-ups & screw-ups! No wonder there's no money left for badly needed services for elderly, poor & working-class Americans.)
Bush is so shallow and callous, and desperate for any good news, that he practically trips over himself, to dance another victory dance on the White House lawn today. Instead of displaying the gravity and seriousness of a wise leader, he foolishly declares that again we are victorious! By the way, how many "missions accomplished" in Iraq are there? Wouldn't it be nice if the Bush administration would share their "missions" with us, and perhaps with those asked to spill their Blood in Iraq?
Mr. L. Paul Bremer & Rumsfeld look well-rested, well-fed and well-pleased with themselves. Bush happily tells us what a good job they are doing. Tell that to the families of our men and women "tortured & racked by the pain of their wounds, maimed, injured, and murdered" daily in Iraq, inflicted not by Udai or Qusai, but by Bush and his band of bombastic, bumbling, buffoons, who didn't plan the "post-war" (sic) occupation of Iraq properly.
How many times are we going to see Bush's arrogant victory dances designed to cover-up and mask the horror of a botched up invasion, occupation and guerrilla war, all in the name of Big Business and Big Oil. No executives worth their salt are going over to Iraq, until the guerilla war is over.
One middle-manager with no experience, but put in place to manage civil facilities said that if the Iraqi people are desperate and without facilities, it will make them grateful to us for whatever we decide to do for them. Tell that to those Americans and Iraqis who lost loved ones, due to anger caused by Iraq observing their Oil Fields protected, while Human Lives were not. Refer to William Rivers Pitt article entitled "The Crime and the Cover-Up" on : http://www.zmag.org/content/s...
"He basically said this was true, that chaos was good, and out of chaos comes order. So what the Iraqis were saying - that this madness was all on purpose - this intelligence guy didn't discredit. He said, 'If you keep them hungry, they'll do anything for us.'" Are these the types of thugs we have doling out favors in Iraq, under Bremer? Yep, folks, just like the brutal thugs we've got in the White House arbitrarily deciding upon what laws they'll chose to follow and what favors they'll dole out to us if "we're good soldiers" who follow orders blindly.
Having met with a Corporate Executive in Paris, who claimed to know Rumsfeld personally, this administration's contempt for the law and innocent not-so-rich people isn't a surprise. Many months prior to the war in Iraq, he informed me that Rumsfeld was a "good man" (meaning this guy was planning to enjoy the Bush/Cheney Booty-for-the-Rich), who knew what is right for America, and would decide the course. Hmmm... Rumsfeld may think he knows what is right for America, he thinks he knows better than any of us... but he lied and is responsible for hundreds of deaths and thousands of maimings and injuries of our US Military Soldiers, as well as countless deaths, maimings and injuries of innocent Iraqis.
William Rivers Pitt continues: "A friend of mine's husband is an ambassador," said Evans. "I asked him if this was normal operating procedure. He said that, basically, no one will work on this Iraq project who has any respect for their work or career, because it is so clearly a farce. He said that later we will go in after these guys have blown it, but right now with Bremer there it is a farce. Even the press is over there are just shaking their heads and asking, can anyone fail so badly? Can anybody make so many mistakes? You can't imagine they can be so dumb."
"One Iraqi woman I spoke to," said Evans, "said she feels like Iraq is a wounded animal, and everyone is coming in to take their piece of flesh."
"The cover-up is one thing, the crime is another. The Bush administration, mainly in the form of Rumsfeld's Office of Special Plans, disregarded any and all intelligence which said Iraq was no threat. They supplanted reliable data with a slew of lies and exaggerations that were fed daily to the American people and Congress, and got their war. In the aftermath, nothing is being done for the millions of Iraqi civilians who suffer daily under their newfound 'liberty.'"
By the way, how can Rumsfeld have been allowed to set-up an OSP (Office of Special Plans) which was not a proper government agency-- but a fascist arm of the AEI, with neo-cons determined to go to war, and fabricate any so-called "intelligence" to do so. Wouldn't this be considered a criminal act, a sort of coup d'etat in which established governmental departments are bypassed for dictatorial aims?
"We the People" should not be fooled by this administration's "smoke-screens", deceptions, and desperate attempts to paper-over their crimes. It is telling that Bush makes his imperial speeches and then refuses any questions. Emperor Bush has held fewer press conferences (and almost none, zip, zero, nada, with the Media posing any hard questions), than any other president in recent history.
This corrupt administration should be tried and impeached, for they have led us on a long, extravagant course of destruction of the lives of a lot of innocent people, based upon lies, deceit and fraud. The blood and treasure of our country cannot continue to be squandered so viciously, wantonly and callously.
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| Did Bush's CIA stage the attack on the US Embassy in Liberia? |
| 07.22.03 (3:58 am) [edit] |
Bush is in trouble here at home. He is an acknowledged serial-liar, and has very little support to continue to murder our troops, in Liberia for example, with a Death toll of an American per day dying in Iraq.
Could the CIA have staged a little attack on the US Embassy in Monrovia, the capitol of Liberia? Bush certainly seems to have (in his own words "hit the trifecta"-- when it comes to major diversions that take the heat off his problems, but aren't pleasant for the casualties) a lucky-streak in avoiding accountability for his destructive policies. The timing of this attack is as cynically "staged" for political benefit, as was the Hollywood Movie "fairy tale" about Pfc. Jessica Lynch (an innocent service-woman caught up in the Pentagon's spider-web). One could be forgiven for speculating ... given all the others lies the Bush administration has told in recent days.
And Presto! Bush has another phony pretext to send our men and women in the military to Die, in order to divert attention from the Bush/Cheney junta's crimes here at home, and abroad.
Perhaps, a little War in Liberia will divert attention from his Iraqi Deceptions, and the obscene, historical record-level Budget Deficit.
"We the People" had better be diligent, as our government is being highjacked by a corrupt cabal, out to gain control of the world's assets, and drive us off a cliff of bankruptcy here at home. Why? Contact your nearest Corporate Robber-baron at BP, Exxon-Mobil, Chevron, Halliburton, Bechtel, etc., for the answer.
Ever wonder why high-level Ex-Defense Secretaries, Ex-Military/Pentagon Officials, and Ex-Intelligence Agents, are hired for cushy jobs by these same Corporations now Profiting Big Time off of the Blood of Our Military Men & Women, Innocent Iraqis, and the Treasure of the good ole' American Taxpayer?
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| Dr. David Kelly was Thrown to the Wolf(owitzes) |
| 07.22.03 (3:48 am) [edit] |
Dr. David Kelly, an eminent British Scientist, Military Advisor to the Government, and, head of major Biological Weapons programs, was tragically thrown to the Wolves, or Wolf(owitzes)!
Dr. Kelly is purported to have told his family that he did not want to live in the world as it has become, and was betrayed. MI6 and the CIA saw Dr. Kelly as a threat-- he knew too much, and was known as an honest man of the utmost integrity-- he had to be silenced. He had informed the BBC that the misrepresentation by UK's Blair Government & the Bush Administration, of a possible attack by Saddam Hussein launching WMDs within 45 minutes, was false. UN Inspectors reported also that this deception used to lead us into War with Iraq was untrue.
Dr. Kelly was "set-up". Like many martyrs and whistle-blowers, come before him, his honesty cost him his life. Unused to being hounded and the glare of unjust humiliation by the UK's Ministry of Defense, he committed suicide.
The BBC's crime was in not protecting their source. They should never have publicly revealed that Dr. Kelly was their "mole". They should have stood by him to protect the freedom of the press, and others who might disclose government abuse and malpractice.
Someone in the British Government and Intelligence Services wanted Dr. Kelly to disappear. Why?
It is a well-known fact in British society, that MI6 are "spin-masters" and a fairy-tale factory, when called upon to justify government policy. There are also elements within the CIA who fabricate propaganda designed to divert our attention from the crimes that the US Government is committing against asset-rich nations. Our own WMDs programs must never become widely known to the public, otherwise men and women of conscience will ask questions and object. They can't allow the perpetual "money-making machi | |
